Q: My Norway maple was damaged by the twister of 2004 and now should come down. I want to replace it, as it was the only shade tree in a southern exposure. Can you suggest a tree that has a more compact shape? The front lot is only 45 feet wide. This neighborhood has a lot of oaks and sugar maples, but they seem to get really huge.

A: Yeah, that's a pretty big tree for a fairly small lot. I wouldn't replant with another Norway maple.

If you like oaks or maples but just not ones that big, both of those species have smaller members. I especially like the paperbark maple (Acer griseum), a slow-grower that tops out around 25 feet and has nice fall color and beautiful peeling cinnamon-colored bark. Other smaller maples to consider would be the hedge maple (Acer campestre), the amur maple (Acer ginnala), the three-flower maple (Acer triflorum) and the trident maple (Acer buergerianum).

One of the nicest of the smaller oaks is the sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima), which has long, serrated leaves that turn yellow in fall. It'll grow about 40 feet tall.

If you'd like something a little different and a little smaller, three of my favorite colorful trees in the 20- to 30-foot range are: Korean stewartia (Stewartia koreana), which gets white early-summer flowers and spectacular red/gold fall foliage; Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa), which gets white late-spring flowers and colorful fall fruits that look like warty marbles, and Persian parrotia (Parrotia persica), which has neon-gold fall foliage and flaking bark as it ages.